Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite
by ofb29
Summary: when Sara babysits for Catherine, you know it's not gonna be an ordinary evening. *finished*
1. not your ordinary day

Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite Disclaimer: not mine. Rating: 12A (contains swearing in later chapters) A.N. Parts of this are clearly made up. Guess which parts!  
  
'No'  
  
'But'  
  
'No'  
  
'Please?'  
  
'No'  
  
'Why not?'  
  
'Because.no.'  
  
'What kind of answer is that?'  
  
'I'm not doing it, so quit asking.'  
  
'But you're the only one free'  
  
'And.'  
  
'And I really need someone. Please Sara.'  
  
'No.'  
  
'Uh, why are you so stubborn? You're the only one not working, and everyone I know is busy. You're my last resort.'  
  
'Thanks Catherine.'  
  
'Well, you didn't think I'd ask otherwise, did you?'  
  
'I'm not doing it. Kids hate me. I don't exactly like them either. End of story. Plus, who says I'm not busy?'  
  
'You don't have a life. Besides I heard you ask Grissom if you could work it as overtime.'  
  
Sara scowled at her.  
  
'Please Sara. It's just this once. And Lindsey knows you. I don't want to have to bring in a stranger.'  
  
'But I'm not good with kids.'  
  
'You don't have to be. Just tell her to go to bed, then you can watch TV.'  
  
'I don't watch TV.' 'Go figure. You can read journals or whatever it is you do. Just, please Sara, I really need a babysitter.'  
  
'But I've never babysat in my life.'  
  
'It's easy. All you do is make sure Lindsey's ok, and chill for a few hours.'  
  
'What if she cries or something?'  
  
'She won't. She's a good kid. The most she'll want is a bedtime story and I'm sure even you could stretch to that.'  
  
Catherine could see she had worn Sara down, she just needed a final clinch to seal it. 'And you can have half my overtime allocation next week.'  
  
She saw the light instantly pop on in Sara's eyes, as her brain inputted this new information.  
  
'And it's for one night. That's it?' Sara checked.  
  
'Promise.'  
  
'Uh fine. But I warn you if she starts bawling, you're gonna get a call.'  
  
'Grow up Sara. You just give her a hug, tell her the bad stuffs gone away, and put her back in bed. Honestly, you need to learn some people skills stat.'  
  
'My people skills are fine. Besides, I'm never having children- what do I need to know what to do with them for?'  
  
'You keep telling yourself that.' Catherine said.  
  
Sara frowned at this, wondering what she meant. At that moment, Nick and Warrick walked into the breakroom, bickering playfully about some game that had been on. They greeted the two women already there.  
  
'What's up?' Nick asked, settling into one of the seats next to Catherine.  
  
'Just convincing Sara to babysit Lindsey for me tomorrow night.'  
  
'Couldn't find anyone?' Nick asked sympathetically.  
  
'Nah. But it's cool, I'm sure Sara will be fine.'  
  
'Sara's still in the room.' Sara muttered.  
  
Warrick was looking between Catherine and Sara, trying to decide whether to laugh or frown at the idea of Sara babysitting. He was interrupted when Grissom entered the room.  
  
Nick and Sara were heading to an armed robbery at Citybank, whilst Warrick and Catherine were heading for a dead couple in a hotel room with Grissom. Warrick asked Catherine as they walked along whether she thought asking Sara to look after Lindsey was such a good idea.  
  
'It's only for one night. What could go wrong? And anyway, I get the feeling Sara is better with kids than she lets on.'  
  
'How so?'  
  
'Remember the Buffallo case last year? She stayed with the little girl, got pretty close to her really, and I know for a fact she phones her social worker every month to see how she's getting along.'  
  
'Really?' Warrick was finding it hard to imagine.  
  
'She just doesn't want to ruin her career girl image by showing she has a soft touch for kids. Maybe Lindsey can break her.'  
  
'Or put her off forever!'  
  
'Hey that's my baby you're talking about!'  
  
'I know- but all kids have a brattish side, and it usually comes out with new babysitters.'  
  
'I'll just have to come up with some suitable warning for what will happen if she breaks any rules. I do not need anything interrupting this meeting.'  
  
The meeting was with her ex, Eddie, concerning parenting rights over Lindsey. It was at night, because they both worked then, and because Eddie was trying to make it as awkward for her as possible to try and somehow prove that she was a bad mother.  
  
The end of shift came quickly, and they met up at the local café for breakfast and to discuss their various cases. Nick and Sara had solved theirs already, whilst the others were having a little more trouble with theirs, none of the people involved were being very cooperative.  
  
'So I'll see you at six tonight?' Catherine said to Sara as they walked out of the café.  
  
Sara gave her a blank look.  
  
'Babysitting. Tonight. For me?' Catherine prompted.  
  
'Right. I knew that.'  
  
'Please don't forget, Sara.'  
  
'I won't, I promise. Um, just one thing.where do you live?'  
  
Catherine stared at her for a long moment, before realising that she didn't exactly know where Sara lived either. She wrote the address out on a piece of paper as she gave verbal instructions of how to get there.  
  
'Six o-clock.' Catherine emphasised once more before Sara could leave.  
  
'I know.' Sara said, sounding exasperated.  
  
Warrick and Nick had been standing near-by and had overheard the whole thing. Catherine turned to them now, a grim look on her face. 'Oh boy. What on earth am I letting myself in for?'  
  
The boys weren't very helpful and just grinned at her.  
  
Catherine was running late, getting on the last of her make-up when the doorbell went, making her jump. She hurried out, passing her daughter in the lounge who was engrossed in Monsters Inc for about the thirtieth time, and hadn't even blinked.  
  
She glanced at the clock, surprised but then not that it was ten to six. Sara was nothing if punctual.  
  
'Hey, come on in.'  
  
Sara was dressed in stonewash jeans and a spaghetti strapped top, a large white over shirt to complete it.  
  
'Find it ok?'  
  
'Sure, no probs. Nice place.'  
  
'Thanks.' Catherine glimpsed the backpack Sara had slumped over one shoulder. 'What on earth have you brought with you?'  
  
'Change of clothes, as you insist on me staying over, and.just.some things to do.'  
  
'You brought work.' Catherine reduced.  
  
'And what's wrong with that?' Sara asked defensively.  
  
Catherine shook her head in exasperation. 'Do the words Day Off mean anything to you?' She asked, but then noticed Sara's look wasn't on her.  
  
She followed her eye line, and noticed her eyes were on the TV.  
  
'Ooooo Monsters Inc!' For a moment, her tone of voice was one of awe and excitement. For the first time, Catherine could almost get the image of Sara as an actual child. Sara ignored her, crossing behind the sofa. 'This is my favourite part.' She said, presumably to Lindsey, although her eyes never left the screen.  
  
Lindsey glanced over at her, smiled, before looking back at the screen, moving closer to Sara on the seat, finally finding someone who shared her passion for Monster's Inc.  
  
As Lindsey had seen in that one moment, Sara wasn't trying to impress her with pretending to like something, Catherine watched in wonder as Sara got completely engrossed in the film.  
  
She shook her head; just as she thought she couldn't be shocked anymore, something came along to completely throw that idea out of the window. At least Sara didn't seem to mind the idea of babysitting anymore.  
  
'I'll see you in the morning.' She announced, checking her bag for all her usual paraphernalia. Sara barely acknowledged the words. 'If I'm late, the school bus leaves at seven.' Sara still didn't respond. 'Sara!'  
  
'Seven o clock. School bus. Is your mom always such a worry wart?' Sara asked Lindsey, who giggled.  
  
Catherine rolled her eyes. 'Ok. Well, help yourself to whatever in the kitchen. Money for takeaway on the side. Linds, bed after the film. Alarms on, and all the doors are locked. Combination is same as locker room at work. Lindsey can show you around. Have a good evening.'  
  
'Hope the meeting goes well.' Sara remembered to say.  
  
'Bye baby, behave or no party on Saturday.' Catherine said to her daughter, getting rewarded with a spookily similar eye roll to her own. 'Thanks again for doing this Sara.'  
  
'No problem. Tell everyone I said hi.'  
  
Catherine left them engrossed in the film, setting the alarm on the way out so they wouldn't be disturbed. She had to go on normal shift after the meeting so stopped at the labs on the way, to see what new was in, and to make sure Grissom didn't get any ideas of calling in Sara on her day off, as he always seemed to be doing.  
  
Warrick and Nick were already in the break room, watching the sixth inning of a ball game. 'Hey guys.' Catherine greeted them, as she filled out some paperwork.  
  
'Hey- Sara remembered then.' Warrick greeted her.  
  
'Yeah. I left them engrossed in Monsters' Inc.' Catherine told them.  
  
Warrick lifted an eyebrow in surprise. Nick was more vocal. 'Monsters' Inc- no way!'  
  
'It seems our Sara is a closet cartoon fan.' Catherine informed them.  
  
'Well who would have guessed that?' Nick asked, still surprised. He looked over at Warrick, both with the same thought. He couldn't wait for Sara to return to shift, for the teasing to start.  
  
'You want food?' Sara asked Lindsey as on the screen Scully tried to get rid of the human child.  
  
'Pizza!' The six year old squealed. Sara smiled, reaching for the phone. 'What do you like?'  
  
'Margherita with extra cheese.'  
  
'Coming right up.' Sara didn't need a menu or number, knowing both off by heart for several restaurants.  
  
The food was delivered promptly, and they ate on the floor in the lounge, both girls able to mimic a lot of the screen play of the film. Lindsey was in stitches as Sara did a rather accurate impression of Boo.  
  
As they settled back on the couch, comfortably full, Lindsey using her stomach as a pillow, Sara found herself thinking babysitting wasn't so bad.  
  
Grissom gave out assignments. It was fairly slow, one B&E, that Nick was going to take. Warrick was going with Catherine to offer moral support, then they were going to attend the next crime scene. Two seconds before they were due to leave, Catherine's cell went off.  
  
Catherine rolled her eyes, presuming it was Sara, but didn't recognise the number. 'Hello?'  
  
'Cath?'  
  
'Eddie? Do not tell me you are ringing to cancel this meeting.'  
  
'I have to. Something came up at work. We'll have to re-schedule.'  
  
'I don't believe you! I go to all that trouble of getting a sitter, and re- arranging work, for you to ring now.'  
  
'It's not my fault. I'll be in touch.' With that he rang off, leaving Catherine fuming.  
  
So much for all the hassle of getting Sara into babysit- she should have just swapped shift. But as she was there, it would make no sense to swap now. She turned to Warrick, telling him the news, most of which he'd guessed from her side of the phone call.  
  
Warrick was about to say they should look into some cold cases when both of their pages went off, Grissom on cue with a new body for them to investigate. As they exited the lab to the cars, Catherine wondered if Sara was still enjoying Monster's Inc.  
  
The phone rang, interrupting the climax of the film. 'Does your mom have an answering machine?' Sara asked, reluctant to move from the oh so comfortable position she was in.  
  
'I don't think she put it on.' Lindsey answered. Sara groaned as she gently lifted Lindsey from her lap, and got to her feet. She was less than happy when the caller hung up as soon as she answered.  
  
'Punk.' Sara muttered into the phone, before replacing it, and going to sit on the sofa.  
  
'Who was it?' Lindsey asked as she resettled on Sara's lap. Sara grimaced slightly as one of Lindsey's elbows found a nest in the middle of her abdomen.  
  
'Nobody.'  
  
'Like Mr. Nobody?'  
  
'Yep, that's him.'  
  
Five seconds later, the phone rang again.  
  
By the fifth hang up, Sara was getting rather irritated, and was getting tempted to take the phone line out. The only thing stopping her was the fact that she didn't want to panic Catherine in case she rang to check on them. She did switch on the ansaphone, so when the inevitable sixth hang up came, she didn't have to move to answer it. The movie ended, and they enjoyed the outtakes, Lindsey tried to wheedle a few minutes more before going to bed. Sara allowed her to have a glass of milk, and to show her around the place, before she insisted it was time for Lindsey to go to bed.  
  
Four Dr Suess books later, and Lindsey was out like a light, and Sara watched her sleep for a few minutes. She'd seen Lindsey on odd occasions around the lab or at department events, but until then hadn't really spent any quality time with the youngster. She looked a lot like Catherine, and that wasn't just in mannerisms that she had picked up from her mother. She had sun kissed blond hair, the blue eyes, and Sara knew she would be breaking a few hearts as she got older. It was just a shame that they had to grow up, lose that innocence of childhood that made them look at the world with such wonder.  
  
She eventually prised herself away, stopping the distinctly melancholy thoughts dead in her brain, tonight was not for rehashing old lives. Tonight was for.chilling as Catherine had called it. Tonight, she had the Cartoon Network to watch for however long she wanted.  
  
She would never wish to be a child again, but she did miss certain things, and cartoons were one of them. She loved them because of the way they conveyed the world with such outrageous notions. She had found the perfect escape in the twenty-four hour broadcast of cartoons. The classics were her favourite; old Tom and Jerry, and the original Road Runner could keep her immersed until the day had turned to night and it was time to re-emerge in the life of being a CSI. Sometimes it was all that kept her sane in the hours she spent alone in her silent apartment, the walls closing in, the claustrophobia threatening to overwhelm.  
  
Catherine's words came back, harsh but realistic, she didn't have a life, and it was purely by choice. Living life through other people's misfortunes was a lot easier to deal with, to categorise, than living through your own.  
  
The seventh and eight phone rings were deadened by the noise of the cartoon, the ninth by the power suddenly cutting out.  
  
Sara sighed, as she waited for her eye to adjust to the sudden darkness. Trust her to bring in old case files, but leave the Maglite in her car. She got to her feet, feeling her way in the unfamiliar room around the couch and across the lounge into the kitchen. Catherine had to have some candles somewhere; it was just a matter of finding them. The darkness was enough to creep her out and being in unfamiliar territory certainly didn't help. She searched increasingly desperately for the candles, noticing in her preoccupied state that the rest of the block also appeared to be without power, as she could not see a streetlight on outside the kitchen window. At least she didn't have to worry about trying to find the fuse box. If the whole street was out, it would be a waste of time. Even the moon wasn't out that night, obscured by a blanket of cloud. She would just find something to use as a light source, and go and wait it out in the lounge.  
  
There was a bang outside, the sound like the lid of a trashcan falling off. She managed to recover her breathing and stop her heart rate reaching stroke level, admonishing herself for being so jumpy. It wasn't like anyone else could be in here, all the doors were locked and alarmed, and Lindsey was safe and asleep across the hall. She took a last deep steadying breath, and searched the last drawer, triumphantly pulling out a box of tea light candles. She pulled a lighter from her pocket, she may have (partially) managed to give up smoking for the sixth time, she still couldn't get out of the habit of carrying a lighter around with her. Placing the tiny lights on any available flat surface she highlighted the way to the lounge.  
  
She carried a candle and placed it in the hallway outside Lindsey's room, in case the six year old should wake in the night. She briefly considered going to bed, but decided it was far too early. She was back on shift the following night, so it made no sense to try and get into a normal sleep pattern. She would lie down for a few hours later, seeing as she was here all night, but would save the majority of sleep for the following afternoon. Thank goodness she'd decided to bring along some old case files to look over. Although, as she pulled out the first, she couldn't seem to concentrate on it.  
  
In her apartment, it was easy- there was little distraction in the stark environment. And it was the way she liked it, usually. Except in the creepy darkness, with only the small glow from the tea light candle, reading about the usual murder and mayhem seemed worse than normal. She had noticed the bookcase on the right back wall when she had first entered, and took the candle there now. She read novels occasionally, but wasn't a big reader. Her search mainly consisted of which book spine caught her eye. She eventually took her choice; some family saga set in old America, back to the couch, and settled down to read it.  
  
About nine miles south of her, on the outskirts of the city, a call operator answered a nine-one-one call with the usual procedure. He was interrupted by a voice that was clearly altered, instructing her that a bomb had been planted at an address in down town Vegas, that was due to explode at midnight. That he would phone again in precisely ten minutes. Then the line was cut.  
  
Experience as well as gut reaction had him immediately pulling the alarm, within two minutes, the recording was being listened to by a detective on the city's bomb squad. It was five minutes when the address was flashed up as someone in the police force. 


	2. tick

Chapter Two 

[a.n thanks for all the great reviews- I decided to post earlier than planned because of the great response. Btw, I'm trying a new saving method, so if the format looks wrong, I'll convert it back to the original (I just read the bit that said what to save as in word!)]

Catherine and Warrick were back in the lab, arguing playfully about the DB they had just seen. It turned out that the man had had a heart attack, nothing suss for them to investigate. The lab was still bustling; it quietened down in the witching hours, but for now there were lab staff and technicians still hard at work. They were about to go and find Grissom when he found them, a more serious than usual look on his face.

'Hey Gris, thanks for the hard work.' Warrick joked. 

'We could do with more bodies like that.' Catherine added, turning round, handing a coffee to Warrick.

'I just got a call.' Grissom started, a grim expression on his face. 'Emergency operators took a call from a John Doe; a bomb has been planted at a residential address in the lower Vegas area.'

'What are they calling us for, do they not understand what a crime scene is?' Catherine asked.

Grissom ignored the joking, looking her directly in the eye. 'The address was traced routinely, and came back on someone on the LVPD staff.'

The joking had died now, both of them staring at Grissom, both with a sense of dread increasing inside of them.

'Catherine, it came back as yours.' Grissom told her.

A thousand and one emotions crossed Catherine's face in the space of a few seconds, before one word crossed her lips. 'Lindsey!'

'PD and the bomb unit are on the way to the house. They tried phoning but didn't receive a reply- the line's busy. They found out the powers out on the whole block.'

'The phone won't work then- it's run off power.' Catherine said.

'The detective wants to talk to you.' Grissom answered, looking out of the break room window and seeing a man he knew by sight only approach.

'Catherine Willows?' He asked, coming in.

'Yeah- what the hell is going on?'

'I'm Detective Small with the LVPD. We don't know anything for certain; all we know is that we got a call seven minutes ago from an anonymous source that said a bomb had been planted at your address. He is due to phone again in three minutes, and the call should be redirected here.'

'What…why…' Catherine could barely process enough to get out a question.

'How many people are in the house at the current time?' The detective asked calmly.

'Two- my daughter, Lindsey, and a colleague, Sara Sidle, who was babysitting for me.'

'At what time did you leave?'

'At six.'

'This evening?'

'Yeah.'

The door opened, and a young police detective stuck his head in. 'Sir? He's on line.'

'Is there an office I could use?' The detective asked.

Grissom nodded, and they all followed him to his office, the detective doing a second take at the collection of pig embryo and various insects on the shelves.

'You are speaking to Detective Small of the Las Vegas Police Department.'

'This call cannot be traced.' Said a weird sounding voice. They all guessed he was speaking through a voice synthesiser. 'The bomb is wired to the house alarm. The alarm is currently set. If the alarm is unset, or breached in anyway, the bomb will explode.'

'What do you want?' The detective asked, as Catherine sat heavily down on the chair.

'You'll find out shortly.' With that, the line was disconnected. A second later, the detective's cell rang, the technician telling him they were unable to trace the call.

The detective hung up, and looked over at Catherine. 'The house alarm is set?' He asked just to confirm.

'Yeah, I put it on as I went out.'

'We need to get a communication line into the house, alert the occupants to not unset the alarm.' The detective said.

'I've got Sara's cell number.' Warrick told him, reaching for his phone. 

'Good.'

Sara was getting tired of trying to read in the abysmal light provided by the tiny candles; she could do with her Maglite, get some serious light going. It was only in her car, she could be out and back in under a minute.

She walked to the alarm panel, remembering Catherine said it had been the same number as the locker room at work. It struck her as strange to use the same one, but then again, at least it was easy to remember.

She had tapped in the first two numbers when a sudden ring ripped through the silence. Her cell phone was in her bag, and Sara fumbled between papers trying to locate it before it could wake Lindsey up, the caller id not giving her any clues as to who might be on the other end of the line.

'Sidle'

'Ms Sidle, I'm Detective Small from the LVPD.'

Sara raised an eyebrow slightly, wondering why the police would be contacting her on her personal cell phone.

'What can I do for you?'

'I'm afraid we've got a slight situation.'

'I'm not following.'

'We just received an anonymous tip to say that the house you are in at the moment is wired to a bomb, via the house's internal alarm system.'

'You've got to be kidding me. Like I'm going to fall for that! Who are you really? Did Nick put you up to this? I'm gonna kill him.'

'Ms Sidle, I'm not joking.'

'And you expect me to believe you because…?'

'Hang on.' There was some muffled movement, and then a voice Sara hadn't expected came on the line.

'Sara, it's Grissom.'

'Gris. What's going on?' A drop of fear worked its way up her spine.

'Listen to the detective, Sara, he's telling the truth.'

'What the hell? What do you mean? There's a bomb?' Sara could barely think straight as she looked at the alarm panel. 'Can't I just disarm the alarm?'

'No! No! Don't touch anything to do with the alarm. The detective wants to talk to you. Listen to all he has to say, and stay calm.'

More muffled movements and the detective came back on line. 'Is Lindsey with you?'

'She's asleep.' Sara answered distracted, trying to piece it all together.

'Do you understand about not touching the alarm? Anything interrupting the circuit will set the bomb off.'

'I got it. You know the powers off, right? Surely, the alarm is off?'

'We're not sure of anything right now. How much battery is on your cell?'

'It's fully charged.'

'Good. Stay put, I'll be back in touch shortly.'

With that, the phone went dead in her hands, leaving Sara to look around her, and wonder what the hell was going on. She got up, crossed to the back bedrooms, just to check Lindsey was safely asleep in bed.

'How is the alarm sourced with the power off?' The detective asked Catherine.

'Um…it's got an internal power source. Oh God- the alarm will go off when that runs out!'

'How much time does it have on this power source?'

'Three hours.'

'Ok. What alarm setting is it on?'

'External doors and windows.'

'Any access route not covered?'

'Uh…no, no. An ex policemen put it in, it's top of the line.'

'I need to get to the scene.' The detective told them.

'I'm coming.' Catherine immediately answered.

'It would be best for you to stay here, at least for now. We will keep in contact.'

'I'm coming.' Catherine snapped at him, giving him no choice. 'That's my baby in there.'

'Fine. But you stay out of the way, and do anything we ask you to.'

Nick opening the door made them all jump. 'it's a regular party in here. Where was my invitation?' His teasing smile soon grew serious as he took in the looks of his co-workers.

'Nick! Uh, something's happened.' Warrick told him.

'What?' Nick asked, dreading the answer.

Warrick stepped forward, dragging Nick outside with him. 'Some maniac's wired a bomb to the alarm system at Catherine's house.'

Nick's eyes went wide. 'What? How? What?'

'Yeah, keep going for about five minutes and you'll be where we all are.'

'Sara knows?'

'Yeah, they just called her.'

'Man- she must be freaking.'

'At least it is Sara and not Catherine's regular babysitter- she really would be freaking now.' Warrick commented. Nick didn't look like he followed Warrick's sentiments, and it was no secret that he was closest to Sara out of all of them at the crime lab.

The door to Grissom's office opened, and everyone trooped out. 'Nick, what's going on with that B and E?'

'Done the fingerprints, they're running through AFIS now. Not a lot more I can do.'

'We're going to the scene.'

'Count me in.'

'Someone should call Sara's family.' Warrick said aloud.

Catherine looked back at them. 'Man, this is all my fault. Sara shouldn't be anywhere near there.'

'At least it's Sara and not a sixteen year old babysitter.' Grissom said, echoing Warrick's earlier thoughts to Nick.

'It shouldn't be anyone. What if something happens to Lindsey?'

'Nothing will.' Grissom said firmly. 'I'll go and pull Sara's personal file, get her details.' He said. 'Nick, I'm gonna need a lift- can you wait up?'

'Sure.' Nick told him.

As Warrick and Catherine followed the detective, they saw Warrick rescue the keys from Catherine's hand, telling her firmly she wasn't driving.

Nick took a seat in one of the desk chairs as Grissom rifled through a filing cabinet. He eventually pulled out a folder, with a small 'ah ha!' 

He took a seat opposite Nick, opening the file, flicking past the requisite photo with barely a glance. Nick looked up at the silence from his boss, noticed the confused look on his face. 'What is it?'

'I…Sara's folders not complete.'

'Huh?'

'When she joined, I guess I didn't get round to filling in all the bits.'

'What bits?'

'There's no one listed as next of kin.'

Nick had a confused look on his face now. 'No next of kin?'

'No one listed.' Grissom corrected.

'You knew her before she came here- don't you know her family?'

'No. Never came up. Sara's a very private person.'

'That she is. Oh well, let's get out there. We can ask Sara bout it when she comes out.'

Catherine's normally quiet street was already full to the brim with police cruisers, unmarked cars, LVPD bomb squad van. And several TV crews from local news stations.

'See the media got wind of it pretty early.' Nick commented as he pulled the car into the closest available spot.

'Must have heard it go out on the scanners.'

They quickly found Detective Small, along with Catherine who looked beside herself, as if she was about to climb the walls. They were seated in the bomb squad van, the chief quizzing Catherine on the type of the alarm she had.

Warrick stood by the entrance, looking equally between Catherine and keeping an eye on the street, mostly to make sure no press came anywhere near.

'What's happening?' Nick asked Warrick when they got close enough.

'Not enough.' Warrick answered.

'Ms Willows, I know this is a hard time, but the more information you can give us, the more help it'll be in unarming this bomb.' The chief said, an older guy, with the air of an army sergeant to him.

'Yeah…sorry.'

'I understand. Now, let's go back over. How is the alarm triggered, on a normal full alarm?'

'Full alarm? There's movement sensors in all rooms. All the windows and doors have a trip sensor- when the alarms on, and the circuit gets broken, the alarm goes off.'

'What different settings are there?

'I've got four pre-set. Um, full alarm, external doors and windows only, um…external doors and windows plus kitchen, lounge and hallway, and the last one is full alarm minus the kitchen.'

'And at the moment the alarm is set to just external doors and windows?'

'Yes.' Catherine said in frustration. They had been through all this. She felt a comforting hand lie gently on her shoulder, and looked up to meet Grissom's eye. 'Yes, that's the setting.' She said in a more reasonable tone.

'Can you only do pre-set triggers?'

'No, you can chop and change it all manually.'

'Ok.' The sergeant made a quick note. 'We've got the plans to the house. Could you mark where any of the triggers are, including any movement sensors.'

Catherine took a deep breath and blew it out before accepting the red highlighter and drawing plans.

'Has anyone contacted Sara again?' Nick asked.

'We'll wait till we have something to tell her. There's only limited time on her cell battery and we don't want to waste it.' The sergeant said without looking up.

'What do you think it is we're dealing with?' Nick asked.

'A nut.' Came the curt reply.

Brass came back from checking in with his team. He had nothing more to report- the bomb squad were about to see how far they could get from their side.

The sergeant held up his hand for quiet, and they noticed he was dialling a number on his phone. It was on speaker phone, but as the number went through he gave them a hard glare. 'No speaking. We need to get the message through then disconnect.'

It was picked up almost instantly, and they could all imagine that Sara was waiting for the call. 'Hello?'

'Ms Sidle?'

'Who the hell were you expecting?' Nick and Warrick couldn't stop the small smile at Sara's oh so normal irritated tone.

It threw the sergeant momentarily though. 'Uh, yes, quite. Look, our men are doing a walk around, see what they can find out. So don't be alarmed by some men outside, maybe a little drilling or banging.'

'Great. What can I do?' Sara asked, sounding eager to move.

'Nothing. You sit still and don't touch a thing.' Came the quick reply.

They all heard the sigh. 'Whatever.'

'Sara- is Lindsey ok?' Catherine couldn't help it, she had to know.

'Cath?' Sara asked, sounding surprised. 'She's fine. Lindsey's still asleep. I didn't see the point in waking her.'

'Give her a kiss for me Sara. Tell her I love her.'

'You can tell her yourself when we get out of here.' Came Sara's cheerful reply.

Catherine couldn't ask anymore, the tears were running down her cheeks.

'Ok, Ms Sidle, we'll get back to you.' The line was cut before Sara could say anything more.

Sara listened to the sound of the dead phone line for a few seconds, before laying the cell carefully on the table, and getting up. She went to the windows, looking out at the circus on the street. Bright overhead lights highlighted the street, lots of police cruisers, media trucks, unmarks were dotted around. Sara wondered who else of the team was around- she had guessed that Catherine wouldn't have been far once she knew what was going on. Probably the rest were out on assignment and would get there when they could.

They still had a job to do, right?

Sara looked around her, focusing through the open lounge door at the alarm panel. The alarm panel that she had almost keyed in the number to trigger off the bomb. The thought made her shiver involuntary.

She crossed over to it, carefully now, on tiptoe, logically knowing that walking wasn't going to set it off but being careful anyway. She stood square to it, looking at it like it was some great masterpiece in a museum rather than a small eight by five plastic box.

She looked around, suddenly alerted to small red lights that blinked periodically from the corner over the front door. She experimentally waved her arm, making it light up again. Movement sensors. She had them in her apartment, connected to her alarm.

She walked through the rooms, counting sensors. Two in the hall, two in the lounge, two in the kitchen, one in each of the bedrooms, none in the bathroom. In the bathroom, she wandered over to the window. It was darker than a normal window, the light cast off from the spotlights round the front of the house barely noticeable. It was mirrored glass, she guessed, see out but not see in. She examined the lock, which looked like any other window lock, a metal clasp that pulled across a pin, locking round it. But as she looked closer, she could see two metal circuit breakers attached to the two sides of the lock, meeting where the lock did. The alarm circuit. It was hard to think that those two metal plates were the difference between a bomb going off and not.

If there was a bomb. They had what? A call. They must get a lot of hoax calls, surely?

But for a hoax call, they were sure taking it serious, she thought, exiting the bathroom and crossing back to Lindsey's bedroom. She stood in the doorway, watching the nine year old sleep by the light of the candle in the hallway.

They knew something. Or at least, they were pretty confident that this wasn't a hoax, anyway. Perhaps the perp had given them a little too much information to comfortably write it off as a hoax.

Sara hated not being able to do anything. She knew very little about bombs- and what she did know was mostly related to what a mess they left behind when they blew up. She wondered what kind of device was being used, what the explosive was. Centex maybe? Wired into the cavity of the house. Wouldn't take much, maybe a few pounds, to really light up the night sky. She wondered where it would have to be placed for maximum impact. It was a single story house. Small hallway, two doors off it to the lounge and kitchen, the back of the house where the three bedrooms and bathroom were. Garage accessed out from the kitchen. So, one in the back wall, take out the bedrooms, one in the kitchen, and maybe one in the lounge just for effect.

Sara suddenly looked up. It wasn't a flat roof, she remembered, so maybe there was an attic or something up there. Then she looked down. Maybe there was a cellar down there. Either of them would be perfect places to hide some explosive.

She crossed into the kitchen, after carefully closing the bedroom door behind her. She wondered if the door to the garage was wired, and if so, whether the alarm was set for it. She didn't remember Catherine saying it was, but then again, why would she?

The kitchen was quite large, modern looking, white and cream cupboards with a splash of navy blue thrown in for effect. A breakfast bar ran across the middle, with two stools sat at it. A chalkboard on the side listed Catherine's off duty for the next week, presumably so that Lindsey knew when her mom was likely to be around. There were other household effects, pictures on the fridge, a shopping list held captive by a snoopy magnet. A white board with flyers from Lindsey's school advertising school clubs or a cake sale. Parent-teacher night was stuck in a prominent position, along with Lindsey's last report card, mostly filled with As and Bs.

To Sara's right as she stood facing the large picture window, was another door she hadn't really taken notice of before. As torchlight swung across the backyard behind her, Sara used the tea light she held on a saucer as light, and opened the door. It led into a pantry of sorts, tins of food, bags of pasta, jars of sauce arranged neatly on floor to ceiling shelves to her right. At least if they were in here for a while, they weren't gonna starve, anyway.

To her left, there was another door, and this one drew Sara's complete attention. Judging by what she knew of the house plans, this wasn't too far from the outside wall, but wasn't flush with it, the backing on, as it did, the edge of the hall. Sara wondered if it led down to the cellar, but without certainty, especially as to whether it led outside, and therefore under the realm of the alarm, she wasn't about to chance opening it.

She stood and looked at it instead, debating all the possibilities. Before she turned away with a shake of the head, and headed back to the breakfast bar and a seat. If only the power was on. Here in the light of the candles everything seemed more creepy than it should.

You're sitting here with a wired bomb for company, she reminded herself. You're allowed to feel creeped out, and even scared. No one was going to think any less of her for that. Not that anyone could see how she was feeling, seeing as it was they were all out there, and she was in here.

She looked around, wondering how this nightmare was going to end. And then wishing she hadn't started wondering at all. She needed to talk to someone, get out of here. But seeing as neither was an option right now, she stayed standing, staring in the backyard, watching the police on who she now had to rely on. It didn't sit very comfortably with her, and she was soon off to stand vigil over the little girl she had promised to take care of.


	3. tock

**Chapter Three**

'Does Sara know that the power to the alarm will run out with the power off?' Nick asked into the quiet. They were all still in the back of the van, waiting. Some more patiently than others. Catherine was staring at the phone, as if she could telekinetically will a message of hope through to her daughter. She was comforted to know that through this nightmare her daughter was sleeping. That she wasn't worrying.

Grissom stood behind Catherine a constant, silent, comforting presence. It felt wrong, just to be standing still. To be doing nothing whilst Sara was very possibly trapped inside a wired building. To not have any say in the case, to have to watch whilst the others, the experts he reminded himself, do their job.

Warrick had stepped out of the van a few minutes ago, unable to stand the atmosphere any longer, and didn't hear Nick's question. He knew the answer, though. They hadn't said anything to Sara. Probably didn't want to risk panicking her and making her do something stupid. Which just showed that they didn't know Sara at all; he couldn't imagine Sara panicking in any situation, least of all where her actions could have such an effect on another life.

'No, she doesn't. And we won't tell her unless we have to.' The detective answered, not bothering to turn around to actually face Nick. Which rilled Nick straight away.

'She's gonna ask.' Nick stated. 'Are you going to lie to her?'

'If we have to.' The sergeant said.

Nick was fuming, but at a look from Grissom, didn't say anything more. There was no point in further upsetting anyone.

'Do you have any enemies. Have you had any threats in recent times?' The sergeant asked Catherine.

'No threats. And I would imagine I have a lot of enemies in prison.' She said grimly.

'Anyone ever threatened your family, you, because of your job?'

'A few- mostly when they're being charged with murder.'

'Any names?'

'Not that I can remember- a lot of people get angry when being arrested.' Catherine was trying to stay patient, but the questioning didn't appear to mean anything.

'Anyone you put away recently get out of jail?'

'I don't know. It's not like I keep tabs on all of them.' Catherine answered testily. 'Why hasn't this guy called back with a ransom?'

The detective shook his head; he didn't know anymore than they did.

Warrick watched the navy clothed bomb squad all start drifting back to their leader, a big tall guy who wouldn't have looked out of place in the marines. They all seemed to be reporting what they had found before the leader turned and started walking towards the control van he was stood outside of.

He stuck his head inside. 'Detective, can I have a word? Out here.'

'Say whatever you've got to say here. I want to hear it.' Catherine commanded, and even though he might have looked like a marine, the guy still jumped at the tone of her voice.

The police detective and bomb squad expert exchanged glances before the detective nodded his head. It was useless trying to hide information from them, they would find out eventually.

The bomb squad leader stepped into the crowded van, Warrick stepping in behind him and closing the door firmly. They didn't need the press getting any more detail than necessary.

'The bomb is a positive.' The first words out of the bomb squad guy's mouth brought collective sighs and sharp cry from Catherine. 'Two lengths of c4 and Centex wired to the external alarm, through the housing cavity. Suggestions that more wiring leads to the cellar. Wired directly onto the alarms wires, which would trip the timing straight away.'

Catherine dropped her head into her hands, as all the hope she had been relying on collapsed in ruins at the words.

Grissom, Warrick and Nick looked helpless, whilst Brass looked at the expert sharply. 'How are you going to take it out?' He commanded rather than asked.

'We have yet to find out a way to unarm the bomb. The alarms internal clock will be the timing device- the alarms circuit breaker is what it's running from. If the circuit breaks, the timers triggered, and the bombs will explode. When the power runs out from the alarm, the circuit will fail, and will trigger the bomb. We can't get a close enough look from out here.'

For a moment there was silence in the van.

'Get the power company on the phone!' The detective barked. 'I want the power back on within twenty minutes.'

'Unwise- the power coming back on will trip the alarm back into the house, and could potentially trip the bomb.'

'So we've got till midnight?' The detective asked.

'Midnight.' The bomb expert echoed with a nod of his head.

The silence came back more stifling than ever. When the detective spoke again, his voice was suddenly quieter than before. The harshness to it was all too loud though. 'Get out there and find a way to disable this bomb.'

'Yes sir.'

She couldn't stand the silence anymore. It was driving her mad. If only she could turn on the radio or something. Listen to something except the occasional sigh of a breath from Lindsey as she slept, or her own breathing. She was sat in the corridor, opposite Lindsey's bedroom door. Sitting and listening to the sounds of silence. Without the power on, the usual sounds of a silent house, the hum of the air conditioning, or the fridge the house seemed bigger. Bigger and yet somehow more claustrophobic. Sara had never really had a fear of the dark or of closed in places. But in this place, in this silence, it felt like the very air around her was closing in, pressing against her, pushing her into the wall, not allowing her to move.

She startled even herself by suddenly jumping to her feet. She was being stupid. She was being melodramatic, and she was panicking. All things which she wasn't usually, and she decided then and there she wasn't about to become. She was a scientist. The walls around her were the same as they had been five minutes ago. An hour ago. Two hours ago. Time wasn't running faster or slower. The regular breathing she strained to hear from Lindsey indicated that. The house wasn't moving around her.

Yet.

The silence. That was what was wrong. Silence meant no movement. No action. No one doing anything to end this nightmare and get her little girl out safe. She could scream. It would break the silence at least. But she wouldn't. She was the professional if nothing else. She couldn't break down now. There was still time. Until her little girl's last breath there was still time. Because Catherine wouldn't give up hope till then. She knew that.

She looked around her, at her colleagues and friends. 'Isn't there anything we can do?' She asked no one in particular. She didn't like sitting here doing nothing. Not when it was her little girl in there. Her baby.

'The professionals are on it, Catherine.' The police detective answered. 'They're the best.'

'But can't we do something…else? Find out who might be behind this. A suspect? Go to the source? Something.' She implored.

The detective looked thoughtful.

It was Grissom that spoke though. 'Maybe we should look up some cases we've had with bombers.' He said thoughtfully. Hopefully. He didn't exactly enjoy sitting doing nothing either.

The detective simply nodded.

Grissom looked at Nick and Warrick. 'Let's go search the database.' He said simply to them.

'I want to do something.' Catherine told him.

'I know. But I also know you won't leave here. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.'

'Has anyone done the perimeter?' Nick suddenly asked.

'It'll be wrecked.' Grissom stated.

Nick was dejected for a moment. 'What about fingerprints? There might be something. Anything.'

Catherine jumped to her feet, but the detective pulled her down just as hard. 'No.' He said forcefully.

'But…'

'No. I don't need you getting impulsive and doing something stupid. You can't be the CSI here, Catherine.' He finished, his voice an effort to be gentle.

'I'm not gonna be the victim.' Catherine stated.

'Hopefully you won't be.'

'I'll do it.' Nick said. 'My kits in the car.'

Grissom nodded. 'Print door and window frames.' He said. 'And anything else suspicious.'

'On it.' Nick said, looking more than pleased to finally be doing something.

'You should phone Sara, tell her what's happening.' Grissom said, and the detective nodded, dialling the number into the phone, again leaving it on speakerphone.

'Yo, thought you'd forgotten about me.' Said a familiar voice- they could all hear the jumpiness in Sara's voice.

Nick had paused by the door, listening to the conversation.

'How you holding up in there?' The detective asked.

'Oh I'm fantastic.' Sara stated her voice laced with sarcasm.

'Good.' The detective said. 'Look one of your colleagues is gonna do some printing of the perimeter- see if they can find anything.'

'So this is real then?' Sara stated more than asked. 'You confirmed that there's a bomb?'

'At this moment nothing is confirmed we're just.'

'Cut the crap!' Sara cried. 'I know you wouldn't be printing if there wasn't something you were looking at. Don't lie to me.'

For a moment the detective was silent. 'I'm sorry.' He finally said.

'Tell me what's going on.' Sara asked.

'I don't think that's'

'Tell me what's going on.' Sara stated again, her tone hard.

'We're following up ways to disable the bomb.'

'How long till the alarm runs out of power?' Sara asked.

'That's not.'

'The powers off. It's not running on thin air. How long?'

'I'm not gonna.'

'How long?' they could all hear that Sara was trying to control the volume of her voice.

'Midnight.' Grissom finally said out loud.

They heard a sharp intake of breath.

'Tell me how I can disable this thing.' Sara said.

'Don't touch a thing.' The police detective shouted.

'Grissom.' Sara stated, ignoring the policeman. 'There must be something I can do from this end? Come on, use me. I'm just sitting here doing nothing and it's driving me insane.'

'I don't know, Sara, to be honest. Look, let me talk to the bomb disposal guy. I'll get back to you, ok?'

There was no answer for a beat till Sara finally said 'ok.' The detective was about to say goodbye when Sara said 'Catherine?'

Catherine jumped at the sound of her name. 'Yeah?'

'You have a beautiful angel.' Sara told her, before she cut the call.

Catherine sat stunned till a tear tracked down her cheek.

Finally things were moving, the silence broken with talk and movement, and activity.

Catherine started thinking back, jotting down cases where either she had been threatened or there had been a bomb involved. She'd been on the job a decade, had many cases, but it was amazing, once she started thinking, how much she could remember.

Sara stood, her forehead leaning against the cold pane of glass, her breathing making condensation appear on the pane, fogging it up, letting it turn clear again before her next breath fogged it up again. She caught movement in her periphery, and moved slightly, standing up straight, catching Nick with the movement, causing him to look up at her. He smiled slightly, raising a hand in which he held a brush, the fingerprint dust in his other hand.

Sara tried to smile back. In his smile she saw pain, saw the fear of the situation. Saw that he was trying to give her hope. But he was on the other side of the glass, and she couldn't touch him. She felt trapped, even more so than before, her breath coming faster, not allowing the fog to clear on the pane of glass before her next one. In that one look, Sara saw that everyone else was beginning to see this as hopeless, that they hadn't got a clue. That they were going through the motions, but didn't know what for.

Sara gave up the smile, failing miserably and pushed off the pane of glass, stumbling back into the cocoon of the big house, away from well meaning looks and gestures.

Back to watching the little angel she was meant to be protecting.

She tried hard not to laugh at the thought, but failed, the laughter getting caught in her throat, next to a big lump that promised tears weren't far away. She stared hard at the wall, blinking furiously against the tears, refusing to give in to hopelessness. 

With years of training, Sara slipped easily back into the role of scientist, investigator, wrapping it around herself like body armour. Taking a step back from it all in her mind, looking at it as she did a crime scene, as if it was somebody else's nightmare, somebody else's problem. With the cool detachment she used on the job to block out the harder parts of crime scenes, she made herself focus on the facts rather than emotions, hoping that Grissom came up with something for her to do. Something she could use to influence this, instead of just sitting and waiting it out. She didn't think she could do that for five more minutes, let alone till midnight.

She just wanted out of this nightmare.


	4. tick

Chapter four 

(A.N. Thanks for the reviews- you guys are fab! And Lindsey's six. I should really check this more thoroughly!)

Stepping into the coolness of the CSI headquarters felt strangely like coming home. The comfort of familiarity, the calming quality of seeing the people you saw every day. Warrick shook off the feeling, moving like a man with a mission through to the DNA lab. Greg sat hunched over a microscope, looking suspiciously like he was actually doing work.

'Greg.' Warrick announced from the door, hoping not to startle him.

'Hey, Warrick.' Greg said, giving the microscope a final look before turning his attention fully to the CSI. 'Got something for me? You guys have been awfully quiet tonight on the sample front.'

'Uh.' Warrick managed. In the excitement, no one had actually gotten around to telling Greg what was happening, and he didn't have a TV in here to catch the news. Warrick cleared his throat, before detailing what had happened.

He watched the colour drain from Greg's face. 'Why didn't someone tell me?' Greg finally asked angrily when Warrick finished. 'I've been sitting her doing scut work for Ecklie when Sara's in…' He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't know how to. 

'Sorry man, in all the excitement.'

'I was forgotten.' Greg finished sourly for him. 'Sara's my friend and colleague too, you know.'

'Yeah, I know. But you can help me now.' Warrick said, and detailed what he needed.

The labs had gone fully digital last year- including an up to the minute fully searchable database of crimes that the CSI lab had worked over the past fifty years. It included everything from details of crime, who worked the cases, significant features, and if anyone was ever prosecuted. It was used in all sorts of ways. Checking for similar crimes or circumstances, keeping track of cases going to trial and the verdicts. The monthly arrest and containment statistics. It was a private database, with links to the national FBI databases and several neighbouring jurisdictions. The full potential of something that had taken the best part of five years and five full time staff to put together had yet to be realised, and the Sheriff was frequently heard complaining about having to hire a member of staff to maintain it full time.

At this moment, however, it all became worth it as with only several hits of keys, Warrick put in the search parameters, and set the machine going. There were seventeen cases that Catherine had worked involving bombs, stretching back to when she had joined CSI ten years ago. Warrick printed off all the details he could, able to dismiss one case straight away as the perp who had been put away for the bombing, in a café in 1994, had died a year ago in prison. They divided the pile between them, searching through the details in the hope of eliminating cases down. The hope, of course, was not to eliminate them all, but to be left with a name behind this nightmare.

It was a long shot, at best, but as the adrenaline buzzed, both were glad to be doing something.

The call was logged at exactly twenty two minutes past ten. T minus one hour and forty eight, and everyone was counting. It was a recording, that much was obvious. An automated voice telling them to leave a million dollars in small non sequential bills at a specified location.

Then the bomb would be disabled.

They had all listened to the message at least five times. For the last one, Catherine had sat forward in her chair, calmly and dispassionately smashed a glass on the side. 'This is crap!' She had stated. 'Where the hell am I gonna get a million dollars from?'

A technician decided at that moment to tell them that the call was untraceable.

Grissom hadn't heard the call. He was deep in conversation with the leader of the bomb disposal unit, discussing ways that they could use Sara, and more importantly, for the bomb disposal guy, asking whether Sara could be trusted to stay calm if they did use her.

Grissom had stated that she was, with such sincerity that the guy, Lewis, didn't bother to ask again.

'I've been studying the plans for the house. It looks likely that the perp entered the house somehow, and planted the bomb from the inside, most likely from the cellar.' Lewis spread out the plans for the house on the ground, two Tahoe's and the LVPD van shading them from prying eyes of press and public. He indicated where he meant on the plans.

'The access is off the kitchen, in what looks like a walk-in cupboard.' Lewis carried on. 'What we're not sure of is the alarm controls yet, we'll have to check with Ms Willows whether it's covered by the alarm or not. But that can wait- I don't want to get her hopes up any at this stage.'

'What else can be done?' Grissom asked not understanding.

'One thing that would help is being able to visualise the control panel, see how the bomb has been wired into the alarm. We can't do it from out here, the alarm panel is in the house.'

'But Sara could.'

'Maybe. It would depend how the panel is set up, whether the casing can be lifted to reveal wires without the risk of disturbing the timer or alarm at all. And of course from out here, we can't determine that.'

'Sara could.'

'It's a big risk. To the untrained eye, one wire pretty much looks like another. I know Sara's a CSI, a good one; I've worked with her before. But this is tricky, delicate stuff. One false move could blow the bomb, and the house with it sky high. And there would be nothing we could do about it from out here.'

'Well it's gonna blow up at midnight whatever we do. Isn't it worth the risk?' Grissom asked.

Lewis had been debating this for a while, and nodded. 'I thought so. But first things first: We evacuate and move everyone a block away. We don't need civilians caught up in this mess.'

It took a good half hour to co-ordinate everyone to move. They set up a new command a block away, the house no longer in sight. The half hour allowed Nick to finish his walk of the perimeter. The results had been sparse. Going over all the ground floor window frames and catches had resulted in only three usable finger prints, two of which were partials. He had, however, got one suspicious hair, snagged on the corner of some flaking paint on what he guessed was the bathroom window. The only reason he thought it might have been any use was it was long and brunette. Catherine and Lindsey were both blond, and as far as Nick knew, Catherine's sister had short hair. There could be a perfectly simple explanation, but Nick bagged it anyway. You never knew what might be useful.

He got a beat cop to run the fingerprints and hair back to CSI HQ, calling Warrick on his way back to the command van to let him know what to expect. He asked about the database, not knowing whether to be happy or not that they had so far narrowed it down to six old cases that could be involved.

He told Small and Catherine what his search of the perimeter had turned up, asking Catherine if she had any ideas where the hair might have come from. 'Not from anyone I can think of.'

'He had to have had access somehow.' The detective said thoughtfully. 'Any unusual visits recently?' He asked Catherine.

Catherine thought about it but nothing obvious sprung to mind.

'How about cold callers- people trying to sell things, or offer services?' He asked.

'Not that I know of. And I'm there usually, during the day, unless we had to pull a double at work.'

'Any recent work done inside the house? Gas, electricity. Water?'

'No, nothing.' Catherine said. She gazed out of the one way window at the circus around her. She didn't like not being able to see the house still. What if Lindsey needed her and she wasn't around? She realised how stupid that thought was as Grissom and Lewis stepped into the back of the van.

The detective looked up at them. 'Any ideas?' he asked. He knew Grissom had gone to ask the bomb disposal expert if there was anything that could be done from inside of the house.

'Maybe.' Lewis answered, not letting away anything for now.

Catherine didn't like it, and was vocal with it. 'Maybe! Maybe! What kind of answer is that?'

'Ms Willows, please. I didn't mean that to sound as unambiguous as it did.' Lewis said smoothly. 'But you have to understand that we are stepping on shaky ground here. Anything we will do from now on could see the bomb explode in a blink of an eye. For that reason we are gonna proceed with small steps. Baby steps. And when I say we have to, we stop, and look for another avenue of investigation.

Catherine nodded her understanding. She was desperate for something to happen, but when it came to being cautious, she was all for it, after all it was her baby in there.

'Ok, first we have to get a communication line to Sara.' Lewis said.

'No problem.' The detective said.

'Now I'll leave it on speaker phone as long as you all understand I'm gonna need silence, and for no one to interrupt.' Lewis said firmly.

They all nodded.

The phone began ringing over the speaker, all of them surprised that it wasn't answered on the first ring. It wasn't till the forth ring that it was picked up, Sara simply saying 'yes?'

'Sara? I'm Mark Lewis, with the LV bomb squad. You wanted to help, and we've got some ideas mapped out, but I want to make one thing clear: You follow everything I say to the letter, no messing, clear?'

'Clear.' Sara answered. 'What can I do?' The jumpiness seemed to have gone, her voice calm, business like.

'Ok, first off, do you have hands free by any chance?'

'Uh…' For a moment there was silence over the line. 'Hold on.' Sara finally said, and down the line they heard faint movement and the sound of paper being shifted around.

'Ok, yes, it's connected.' Sara finally said.

'Good, cause you're gonna need both hands.' Lewis said. 'Now I want you to go to the alarm panel, and describe it for me.'

'It's a plastic box.' Sara said deadpan.

'Yes, what else?' Lewis prompted.

'It has a fold down flap revealing an LCD display, a number panel, and four buttons down the side lettered a to d.' Sara said, beginning to sound impatient now. 'It's your regular alarm panel.' She added.

'Bear with me, Sara, I promise this has a point.' Lewis said patiently. 'Now, how is it fixed onto the wall?'

'Uh, four screws, fixing the back panel on the wall.' Sara said.

'Any wires visible?'

'No.'

'Any signs that it's been tampered with recently?'

'No. Screws look like they haven't been touched since instalment.' Sara said. They could all hear the change in Sara's voice as the conversation ventured into investigator area.

'Ok. I'm gonna need you to remove the front panel to visualise behind it. Hold on.' Lewis said. He put the phone on mute for a moment, they could hear Sara, who was doing as she had been told, while Lewis turned to Catherine. 'Any screwdrivers, DIY stuff around?'

'Cupboard under the stairs, there's a box of stuff.'

Lewis clicked of mute. 'Ok, Sara, if you head to the cupboard under the stairs you should find a box of screwdrivers.' He said.

They waited a few moments, hearing a door open and the sound of metal being clanked around. For a moment Catherine worried that Lindsey was gonna wake up, then remembered the time she had set off the fire alarm by burning dinner and she had barely stirred.

'Got it.' Sara finally said. There was silence, and a slight swish of denim against denim as Sara walked back. 'Oh.' She muttered.

'What oh?' Lewis enquired.

'Well, you know the powers out? I've got a tea light in one hand, and screwdriver in the other. Is there a torch or something around?'

Lewis looked at Catherine, although he didn't bother to mute the phone.

'Look in my bedside cabinet, top drawer.' Catherine finally said. She didn't think that it would be wise to mention that it was her lingerie drawer, and hoped that Sara wouldn't either.

She didn't, just telling them when she'd got it, sounding relieved. They could all imagine that after being in near darkness for a while, the light of the torch was a relief.

'Ok, I'm gonna remove the screws.' Sara said.

'Start at the bottom. And do it slowly.' Lewis instructed.

'Because we've got all the time in the world.' Sara muttered sarcastically before putting the small Maglite between her teeth, and starting on the screws. The thought that it had been nestled in Catherine's lingerie drawer crossed her mind, but Sara assumed that it was all clean. Then wished she hadn't started thinking about it at all. She could really have done without knowing what kind of underwear Catherine favoured. Although it was weird that both she and Catherine seemed to favour thongs.

'Ok, how about this guy- Kevin Lee, got five years for bombing a coffee shop.' Greg said.

'I remember that. Guy was "experimenting". Luckily it was after hours, no one was hurt.' Warrick said. 'Doesn't exactly fit the vengeful picture.' Warrick said taking the piece of paper, scanning the details quickly.

'Could be escalating?' Greg theorised.

'Yep, or he could have learnt his lesson and be back being a useful member of society.' Warrick said. He typed the guys name into the system, which told him he'd got out on parole after three years and was currently living in western LV. 'I'll call a patrol car to go round, see what he's up to.' Warrick said, getting onto the phone to dispatch. So far this method had discounted three people, all of whom had been in bed asleep, their families around them when the police had come knocking.

Greg was getting impatient. 'This is crap- we're never gonna find him in these- who says it's even a guy who's done it before? It could be anyone- a nut of the street who just picked Catherine's house cause it looked pretty.' He pointed out.

'I know. But do you just want to sit there and watch the house blow?' Warrick pointed out. 'At least this way it feels like we're kinda doing something.'

Greg finally shrugged his shoulders, reaching for the next profile on the pile. 'I suppose so. Ok, Larry Smart. Created a bomb out in the desert. Some boy racer drove over it and set it off. That was ten years ago. He was put inside for life. And I'm guessing he's still there.'

One click of the mouse confirmed this and they moved on, only interrupted by a rookie patrol cop tapping Warrick on the shoulder. 'Are you Warrick?'

Warrick nodded.

'I was told to give this to you, and only you.' The cop explained, looking nervous, hopping from foot to foot. He proffered three evidence bags his way. Warrick took them, recognising Nick's handwriting identifying each one.

'Thanks man, you can get back to the scene. Anything going down?'

The cop shrugged. He looked barely old enough to be out of high school, let alone a cop. 'Last I heard, they were gonna start looking from the inside.'

Warrick turned round, the conversation clearly over, and a long moment later the cop got the message, turned on his heel and scampered out.

'So they're gonna do what Sara wanted.'

'What's that?' Greg asked confused.

'Use her to try and defuse the bomb.'

'Oh.' A long pause as it fully sunk in. 'Oh.'

'Let's get this run through AFIS and for DNA.'

'You still with us, Sara?' Lewis finally asked after five minutes of excruciating silence.

There was a grunt down the telephone. Then Sara took the torch from between her teeth, and answered properly in the affirmative.

'Good- how you doing with the screws?'

'One left.' Sara answered, before putting the torch back and carrying on with the job.

'Huh.' She finally said as all the screws were off.

'What huh?' Lewis asked.

'Well, all the screws are off, but the panels still flush with the wall. Must be…' Sara trailed off.

'Speak to me Sara. I want to know what you see, when you see it.' Lewis reminded her.

'The box screws onto the backing on the wall, and slots in on the sides as well. I'll have to run something round the base to get it off properly.'

'Can you see anything?'

'No.'

'Ok. But gently.'

'No problem.' They heard momentary clunking of metal as Sara searched for something flat to slide between the panel and the base. They heard the scraping of metal against plastic, all having to deal with just sitting and listening rather than being actively involved. 'Okay…ah shit!' Sara exclaimed, accompanied by a thump as something hit the floor hard.

Everyone in the van suddenly had their hearts in their mouths.


	5. tock

(thanks for reviews. Next parts up soon. Most of the technical part is completely blagged as I don't have any idea of them- all used for entertainment value!)

Chapter Five 

They heard the scraping of metal against plastic, all having to deal with just sitting and listening rather than being actively involved. 'Okay…ah shit!' Sara exclaimed, accompanied by a thump as something hit the floor hard.

Everyone in the van suddenly had their hearts in their mouths.

'What, what happened?' Lewis cried into the phone.

'Uh- I just slipped and cut myself. Dropped the torch.' Sara answered, sounding embarrassed.

'Are you ok?'

'Yeah, fine.'

'Ok, nice and slowly, take it easy.'

Over the phone line they heard what sounded like Sara taking several deep breaths before the prying continued.

Sara watched as blood trickled from a cut on her thumb, down towards her wrist, where it carried on till it was soaked into her shirtsleeves. Stupid shaking hands and sweaty palms. Where was her calmness, professionalism? But not even with these tools could she remove the panel of the bomb without a little bit of sweat pooling somewhere.

Greg went to DNA lab to do what he did best. There was a nice skin tag at the follicle- this baby had been yanked from the head, probably after becoming tangled up in something. He carefully prepared it before running it through the machine, the wait seeming longer than usual for the machine to finally spit out the DNA profile. With that, he could move onto another database, see if the DNA matched anything they already had in the system.

Warrick was likewise waiting for the wonder of AFIS to work it's magic and tell him who had laid those prints at the house. Being the only workable prints on the frames it was likely they would be fairly recent ones. He just wished there was a quicker way to search AFIS.

AFIS finally decided to spit up a match at the same time as the DNA database decided to perform a match at the same time. Warrick and Greg were both going to tell the other when they met up in the corridor, just outside Grissom's office.

'Got something!' The both exclaimed on seeing the other.

'A match!' The both added at the same time.

'Who?' Warrick asked Greg first.

'Well, female markers and.'

'Lydia White?' Warrick asked before Greg could carry on with his usual long winded spiel on the DNA.

'Uh yeah, how did you…know?'

'Matched the finger prints.' Warrick explained. 'Now all we've got to do is find out why. The only reason her fingerprints were in the system was she had a break in last year and they were taken to discount fingerprints found on the scene.'

'The only reason she's on the DNA database is the same crime. They found blood at the scene, and they wanted something to compare it to when Ms White claimed she had fallen over and cut herself the week before.' Greg said.

'Ok so how does a suburban housewife end up with her fingerprints and DNA at Catherine's house?' Warrick wondered out loud.

There had been silence for a good minute over the phone before Lewis ventured to ask what Sara was doing.

'I'm just getting the last corner off.' Sara answered. In truth she had been standing trying to calm herself before she looked behind the panel. Finally feeling less likely to hyperventilate, she gave a final tweak and the panel came away in her hands, still attached to the base behind by snaking wires.

'Panels off.' Sara announced.

'Ok, describe what you see.'

'Wires, wires and, oh, more wires.' Sara answered, the sarcasm being used as a cover up to stop any other emotion being audible in her voice.

'Colour?'

'Brown and blue mostly- is this likely to be the same as plug wires?'

'No. Now, run each wire back from the panel to the base. Any look out of place, like they shouldn't be there?'

Sara run them through with her eyes, able to discount the large majority of wires on the first look. The base panel was your basic circuit board, but as Sara looked closer, she noticed that it looked like it had been tampered with before. It wasn't sat quite flush, where it should have been. Sara wrinkled her brow as she thought. The screws hadn't been tampered with, but they had to be removed to get to the circuit board. Which meant…someone had to have done it from the other side. She looked around. To her left was the door leading into the kitchen, then Sara remembered the door in the walk-in cupboard, one she assumed to run down to a cellar of sorts. The door angle meant that the staircase had to lead directly behind the hall, easy enough to provide access to the back of this wall. Sara put a finger behind the circuit board, the board falling forward with little resistance.

She didn't normally curse that much, but now seemed as good as time as any. 'Fuck.'

The quiet toneless expletive down the phone line made all who were listening suddenly shiver as though someone had just dropped the thermostat twenty degrees.

'What, Sara? Speak to me.' Lewis asked calmly.

There was only silence from the other end of the phone.

'Sara, tell me what you see…come on Sara, speak to me.' Lewis said.

Still silence. Grissom leaned forward. 'Sara, what do you see?' He asked gently. Nick just held his breath; Catherine was staring at the phone, willing Sara to speak.

'Um…the…the…circuit board, came out.' Sara's normal voice was shaking now. They could all hear the struggle to get the words out.

'Ok, what's behind the board?' Lewis asked gently.

'There's a…there's a timer device. There's two other wires, running…uh…running from the circuit breaker to the timer.'

'What colour are these wires?'

'Blue, like the others.'

'Ok.' Lewis looked over at another member of the bomb squad, and in the look they seemed to agree something. 'It would be really helpful if we knew what kind of wires they were. Do you know how to unsheathe a wire?' Lewis asked.

'Uh…yeah?' There was uncertainty to Sara's voice, the answer coming out more like a question.

'I don't want you to do this unless you are absolutely sure you can do it without cutting the wire. Cut the wire and the bomb may explode.' Lewis warned.

Sara's voice was harder on the reply, more sure. 'I can unsheathe a wire.' She said firmly.

'Ok. Go gently. If you know, go for the wire running to the circuit panel rather than away from it.' Lewis instructed.

'Huh, I just got a flash of déjà vu.' Sara said.

'You've done this before?' Lewis queried.

'No, but I've seen Speed like a hundred times. At least I'm not under a moving bus doing this.' As she spoke, they could hear her voice calming, as speaking about something unconnected, or fairly unconnected took her away from the fact that she was dealing with wires that could potentially explode a bomb.

'That movie was totally unrealistic.' Lewis said, hearing what the others had, willing to speak of anything if it was gonna keep Sara calm.

'Yeah.' Sara agreed. 'But Keanu was totally hot.'

'Well he's not my cup of tea, but whatever rocks your boat.' Lewis said with a smile.

They could almost hear Sara's smile as she asked 'You didn't like Sandra Bullock?'

'Nah, not really. Now, give me that chick in the Matrix anytime.'

They heard Sara's slight laugh over the phone. 'Ok, I've cut through the plastic, and I'm exposing the wire.'

'Good- is it normal metal wire?'

'Uh, no, not exactly. It's a lot thicker, and there's a kind of coating to it. Oh, it's four wires twisted into one.'

'Ok, sounds like titanium. Hold on, I need to confer with a colleague. I'll ring you back, save your battery. Do not touch anything.'

As the phone went back to dial tone in her ear, Sara stared at the timer device counting down the last few hours of her life. She'd give anything right now to have time rewound, to get back to the sofa watching _Monsters' Inc_ with Lindsey.

Until then, the idea of being surrounded by a bomb had been almost unreal. There was nothing to see, no hard evidence to back it up. Only an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Seeing the timer had thrown her completely because it was the first evidence that this wasn't someone's idea of a sick joke, that this bomb was real, and all around her, and that it was set to go off at midnight. The hope and denial she had been building up had shattered in that one, terrifying moment.

Shaking these thoughts from her head, she instead crossed the hall to the kitchen, to the cupboard and the access to the cellar. She considered just opening the door, but guessed that Catherine wouldn't be very happy if the bomb exploded from her own stupidity.

So instead, she stood and stared at it, trying to calm herself. When that failed she walked the few metres to the back of the house, to check on Lindsey instead.

Warrick's phone call to Grissom coincidently coincided with this break, catching the room in full pensive motion, making them all jump in their seats.

'We've got the same match for the fingerprints and DNA.' Warrick told Grissom. 'Get the fax name for that van and I'll fax a picture for Catherine to look at, see if she recognises her.'

'Anyone we know?'

'Not really. On the database as a victim rather than perp.'

Grissom reeled off the fax number for Warrick. 'Cops are on their way to check out the address, but we'll carry on looking, see if anything pops up in the system about her.' Warrick carried on.

'I'll get Brass to come back, start looking into it. Call if you get anything.'

'How's things down there?'

'…Tense.' Grissom finally answered.

'I'll get back to you soon as I've got something. Tell Catherine we're thinking about her.'

'I take it Greg is there?'

'Yeah, he's helping me.'

'Good.'

Grissom hung up and looked over at the fax machine as it suddenly kicked off into action. 'Match to the fingerprints and DNA. Good job, Nicky.'

Nicky would have felt pleased although he wouldn't allow himself that luxury yet. Not until Sara and Lindsey were out of there and safe.

Grissom looked up at Brass who had stood silent till then. 'They could do with some cop knowledge.'

'On it.' And he disappeared.

'Warrick's sending us the picture, to see if you can ID her Catherine.' Grissom added, getting up to retrieve the picture.

He briefly glanced at it, no bells ringing at the picture of a thirty-something woman. She looked to be of white origin, her hair long and brown, eyes that looked cold, bright blue orbs staring unflinchingly at the camera. He handed the piece of paper to Catherine, watching closely for any reaction.

Catherine looked at the picture carefully, a slight spark of recognition but no clues as to why. She looked up at Grissom, and shrugged. 'I don't know who she is. I recognise her slightly. Like I've seen her before, but not really met her, you know?'

'Yeah. Keep thinking, Warrick's running her through the system now.' Grissom looked over at the door as Lewis walked back in. 'Anything?'

'Maybe. Catherine, I need to ask you some things. The door down to cellar- it's in the walk in cupboard in the kitchen, right?'

'Yeah.'

'Is it covered by the alarm?'

'Um…' Catherine wrinkled her brow as she tried to think. 'It's definitely covered by the full alarm, but…'

'Take your time.' Lewis told her.

Catherine closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate on what was covered by the external alarm. Was the cellar door an external door? Not really, but she knew that there were some exemptions and add ons to some of the programs. It was just a case of remembering which. 'All external doors and windows. But not the cellar. Because the fuse box is down there, and if the power was off while the alarm was on I needed to get down there.' She thought aloud.

Lewis smiled. 'Good.'

'So you need to get down to the cellar?'

'Sara does. It's the likeliest place for all this to be set up.' Lewis told her.

'Just don't tell her about the spiders that live down there.' Catherine said thoughtfully with a hint of a smile. 'I don't think you'd get her down there. Mutants, the spiders down there.'

'I'm sure Sara can handle it.' Lewis said. 'Ok, same drill.' Lewis stated, giving them all hard looks before looking at the detective. 'Phone Sara back.'

The detective nodded as he hit speed-dial on the speakerphone.

This time it took about four rings for Sara to answer the phone because she was trying to stop her heart from jumping out of her mouth. When she finally answered she had to clear her throat, praying her voice wasn't about to give out on her.

'Ok Sara?' Lewis asked.

'Yeah.' Sara answered, the earlier sarcasm gone now.

'Good, I need you to find the door to the cellar. It's in the.'

'Walk in cupboard in the kitchen.' Sara finished for him 'I know.'

'Ok. You're going down to the cellar.'

'Oh man. Tell me there aren't spiders down there.'

'There's no spiders.' Lewis lied for her.

'You're lying.' Sara stated. 'But thank you.' They heard a door creak open. 'Crap.' They heard her mutter. 'why does it have to be dark? Why can't all this be done in the light with the sun shining, or at least a forty watt light bulb swinging or something. Not this lousy little Maglite. Sorry Catherine.' 

They guessed the monologue was all rhetorical, that Sara was speaking to herself rather than for anyone else's benefit. 

'Crappy light.' She added for benefit. 'And oh, there's the spiders. Geez. There aren't rats as well, are there Catherine?'

'No, we had the exterminator in last month.' Catherine told her.

'Good- cause right now, I think I'm creeped out enough to run screaming from one. If only I had my gun.' She said wistfully. 'I could do with a bit of target practice. Spiders. Uh. Sorry Gris, but I just don't see the fascination. They have too many damn legs.'

None of them could help the small smile at Sara's ramblings.

'Ok, well I can see where the perp started.' Sara finally said. 'The fuse box has been tampered with.'

'Ok, can you get it off?'

'Sure- give us a sec.'

'Take your time.'

'Easy for you to say.' Sara only had to glance at her watch to know time was seriously of the essence now.

The fuse box was surprisingly easy, though, coming away in her hands almost straight away. Behind it were the standard makings of a fuse box: Flip switches covering the various power options for the house, the meter. And a hole drilled into the backboard that definitely wasn't part of any fuse box Sara had seen. Through the hole ran more of the blue wires, running to what looked like the central switch system. Sara told the others of her findings as she realised what the wires meant. The power being off wasn't a coincidence; if someone switched the power back on, the wire would trip the alarm, and explode the bomb.

Someone definitely planned this out with all eventualities.

In the background over the phone, as Lewis asked if she could get the back panel off, Sara heard Small place a phone call telling someone to make sure the damn power didn't come on until he said so.

The back panel wasn't as easy to remove as the fuse box had been, and Sara had to resort to banging it in places to remove it. 'Well if this doesn't wake Lindsey up.' She muttered as she worked, trying to claw her fingers under the corner she had just managed to lift, get some leverage behind it.

'Linds can sleep through anything.' Catherine told her.

Sara didn't want to know if she would sleep through a bomb as well.

With the ends of her fingers turning raw, her nails broken, the back panel came away from the wall, exposing the nerve centre of the electrics for the house. At first look it was all a jumble of wires, but as Sara looked closer she began to see some sort of pattern to the wires, and was able to spot the wires out of place amongst the others. By cross referencing the wires back to the fuses, Sara could see what parts of the house had been specifically isolated to trip the bomb; mainly power coming back into any of the plugs in the house, and to the garage, presumably because the garage door was electric. 

Catherine confirmed this with a nod, Lewis more vocal for Sara's sake.

'Can you find where they accessed the back of the alarm panel from?' Lewis asked.

Sara swung the torch round her, getting a sense of how big the cellar was, and how much of it was hidden in the darkness. The small Maglite, though powerful, barely touched the darkest corners of the room. She followed the line of the stairs down, seeing where the cellar was still narrow and had to be flush with the hall. At the foot of the stairs, about seven foot up, someone had neatly stuffed a three by two hole in the wall with plaster and had painted over it. It was only from where she stood, looking down towards the stairs, that Sara could see the plaster job was different, that it was more recent than the rest of the wall.

'I'm gonna need you to get behind it. But slowly, carefully. You don't want to have to disturb anything behind it.' Lewis instructed.

Sara looked around for something to stand on, finally finding an old dining room chair, which she dragged over. Sara started at the bottom left hand corner, at first gently knocking at the plaster, before she poked at it with the butt of the screwdriver, the screwdriver going straight through. So much for the gently approach.

The hole, however, gave her an edge to work with, and she started clawing away the plaster from the hole.


	6. boom?

(You guys are amazing- the reviews I've been getting are awesome. Thank you for everyone who took the time to do it. A Bloom- this was written without the intention of romance, so read into what you want! I actually wrote the whole thing before I started posting, so I'm not gonna add anything in now!) Chapter Six 

Grissom's phone rang as they listened to Sara knock out the plaster. He answered it quickly, knowing it was Warrick from the caller id panel.

'Got some news.' Warrick told him. 'Lydia White has a significant other, Elliot Cravely. They've lived together for a few months now, at Lydia's old address. Hadley's name rang a bell, so I ran him through the system. Got a rap sheet the size of my arm, mostly burglary or aggravated assault. Another name however came out with it, his partner in a lot of the burglary cases, Tony Hadley.'

'I know that name.'

'You should. Catherine put him away for murder one. Raped and shot his girlfriend of the time, after holding an off license at gunpoint.'

'He's still in Jail?'

'Yeah, serving life at the county lockdown. We dug some more on Hadley, though. Seemed he was also linked with the charges, but Hadley provided him with an alibi to keep him out of jail.'

'So Cravely owes Hadley?'

'Big time. Cravely's MIA at the moment- Lydia claims not to have seen him in days; Brass's questioning her at the moment. We did however find out that Cravely was in the army- and get this, in the bomb disposal unit. We've got an APB out on him, now we're just getting a warrant to search his crib.'

'Ok, Warrick, keep in touch.'

'How's it going down there?'

Grissom lowered his voice as he answered. 'It's going.'

'You have something?' Sara asked over the phone. She'd heard a cell phone ring, Grissom talking quietly.

'We're working on it.' Grissom answered her, not wanting to say anything till they had something concrete.

'How you doing with the wall, Sara?' Lewis asked.

'Almost done.' Sara grunted as she pulled away the last slab of plaster. Then wished she hadn't.

Her silence spoke louder than words at that moment. Sara was sure most people wouldn't actually know what she was looking at. It looked like putty stuck to the wooden slacks of the house's foundation. Except buried within each line was a small detonator, connected to the next line by a short wire, stretching as far on each side as the torch beam would show. C4.

They allowed the silence for a moment, then Lewis spoke. 'Sara?'

They heard a loud crash, a thump making them all jump. Sara had just swung the screwdriver into the plaster wall, the cheap plasterboard giving way under the ferocious blow. The thump that accompanied it was the chair she had been standing on toppling over thanks to a well- aimed kick from Sara.

'Sara?' Lewis asked again gently. But Sara had ripped the hands free from her ear, slammed her finger on the end button, cutting the call, the nausea ripping through her too much to speak through, to think through. She had to get out of here, out of the cellar, out of sight of the bomb that was going to kill Lindsey and her in forty four minutes. She took the stairs two at a time, breaking out into the kitchen as if she was short of air down there, taking in gulps of air to try and forestall the impending panic attack.

'Damn.' Lewis muttered as the phones dial tone came on. 'Call her back.' He instructed Small. He did, twice, till it cut straight through to Sara's voicemail. "Leave a message, I'll get back to you."

'She'll call back.' Nick said into the quiet. 'Give her a moment, and she'll call back. Sara won't give up.'

Lewis run his hands through his hair, before getting up, signalling the other member of his team that had been listening, over to a corner, where they talked in low tones about what they knew so far.

Grissom and Nick shared a glance, Catherine catching the look. 'Sara will call back, won't she?' She asked them.

'She will.' Nick said confidently.

Catherine rested her head in her hands, not trying to think about what was going on the house.

The phone ringing a moment later made them all jump.

Sara had just needed a few moments to compose herself, to get past the nausea, and panic, and get back to business. What she hadn't needed was an audience, all be it a radio audience, for her small breakdown.

'There are strips of c4, packed on the house supports, connected with wire. The timer is connected to the first one, and it looks like a serial connection- there's only one wire running between each bomb.' Sara's voice was eerily calm, business like. They all knew she was faking it, but they were glad she was. It was hard enough watching someone breakdown when you were in the room, could help. Listening to it over the phone knowing that there was nothing you could do would only make this harder still.

'Ok, that might make this easier.' Lewis said. 'How many can you see?'

Sara paused for a second. 'Enough.' She finally answered, all to aware of Catherine listening. 'Surely if it's a serial connection, I could just cut the first one, and break the circuit?' Sara said into the phone.

'That might not be enough. We don't know if there's any other devices, or whether it's a collapsible circuit.'

There was a sudden startled cry from Sara. 'What is it?' Lewis asked, thinking she'd seen something more.

'Rats.' Sara said, a shudder in her voice. 'I though you said you had this place exterminated?' She asked Catherine.

'I did.' Catherine said. 'This woman came.' She trailed off as a thought hit her. 'That's where I've seen her before!' She exclaimed, grabbing at the picture of Lydia White. 'She knocked on the door, asking if I had a pest problem. I told her that in fact I'd just had rats take up residence in the cellar. She said no problem; that she could come back the next day. I was working, my sister let her in for me.'

'We know the perp then?' Sara said over the phone line.

'Looks like it.'

'That doesn't help, though, does it?' Sara asked. 'Even if they did find them in time, there's no way they'd shut off the bomb. They're already facing life.'

No one confirmed or denied this over the line. They didn't have to.

'So let's beat them at their own game.' Lewis said quietly into the room. 'We don't have to know them, we just have to be smarter than them.'

Sara glanced down at her watch, seeing it was coming up to twenty-two minutes to twelve. Where had all the time gone?

'Well come up with something quick.' Sara told him.

'Can you go back upstairs? I want some more detail on the wire.' Lewis asked her.

'I told you all I saw.' Sara said, although she was hurrying over to the stairs as she said it.

'I want you to look at something different. I want you to unsheathe the wire where it connects to the timing device.'

'You want me to do what?' Sara asked.

Lewis repeated even though everyone knew Sara had heard it perfectly well the first time.

'Ok.' Sara said doubtfully. 'This better have a point.'

'Trust me. If the wire's what I'm thinking, we could have a shot at disabling this thing.'

'Could have?'

'That's the best I can do.'

Sara got to the top of the stairs and walked into the lounge. She caught the wire she had unsheathed with her fingers, running them back till she got to the end of the wire that was connected to the timer. Before she could do anything, a small sleepy voice behind her made her jump, dropping the wire.

'Sara, what are you doing?' Lindsey asked.

Catherine's heart froze for a second before it started pounding in her chest. 'Lindsey!'

'Hey munchkin.' Sara greeted her, trying to stop her heart from hammering in her chest. She felt like she'd been caught doing something really naughty, which was just ridiculous. 'What you doing up? Why aren't you in bed?'

'My cover fell off. I was cold. And it was really dark in my room. Why are all the lights off?'

'The powers off.' Sara told her. 'It'll be back on soon, though.'

'Is that why you're playing with the alarm?'

'Yeah…'

'Oh.'

'You should be going back to bed. I don't think your mom would like you up at this time.'

'She'd get her grouchy face on.' Lindsey agreed.

Sara had to ask. 'Her…grouchy face?'

'Yeah, the one she gets when she's mad about something. Who are you on the phone too?'

'Uh.' Sara was about to lie, but couldn't think of anyone. 'Your mom.'

'Oh.' Lindsey said, biting her lip, grinning guiltily. 'Don't tell her what I said?' She asked, not realising that the hands free kit meant Catherine had heard every word anyway.

'I won't.' Sara promised. 'You wanna say goodnight?'

'I'm not meant to be up.' Lindsey reminded her.

'Right. I'm sure your mom won't mind just this once.' Sara told her. She unplugged the hands free, and gave Lindsey the phone.

'Hey mommy.'

'Hey baby, what are you doing up?' Catherine asked, having to fight tears to make her voice sound something like normal. Everyone else in the van was deathly quiet.

'I got cold. My cover fell off.'

'You'd better get back to bed, you've got school tomorrow.'

'I know mommy. Will you be home in the morning before school?'

'I should be.'

'Goodnight, mommy. I love you.'

'Love you too, baby. Be good.'

Lindsey gave the phone back to Sara, who said 'I'll call back.' before hanging up the phone. She needed to know that Lindsey was safe and asleep in bed before she could concentrate on unsheathing wire again. Seeing Lindsey up and about had really thrown her.

Lindsey had waited for her, and linked hands as they walked down the hallway to her bedroom. 'I don't like the dark.' Lindsey confided.

'Me either.' Sara confessed. 'That's why I put candles everywhere.'

'They're pretty.' Lindsey agreed.

Sara watched her climb into bed, and pulled the comforter up over her, kissing her gently on the forehead. 'Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.' Sara said softly.

Lindsey giggled sleepily as she closed her eyes, and drifted back into sleep. Sara lent forward, kissing her on the forehead again. 'Goodnight.' She whispered.

'Is Lindsey asleep?' Catherine got in as Small hit the talk button on the phone.

'Yeah.' Sara answered. 'Let's do this.' She said, her voice all business. Lindsey's appearance had certainly focused her at that moment.

'Ok, unsheathe the wire as close to the edge as possible.' Lewis said.

Sara did with little hesitation. 'Ok. What am I looking for?'

'Of the four wires, there should be two pairs; one marked with a single orange line, one with two thin green ones.'

Seconds tipped away as Sara searched for what he meant, finally prying the four wires gently apart, finding the markings on the underside of the wire. 'Ok.'

'Ok, hold on.'

'No! Don't hold on. We've got seven minutes left!' Sara exclaimed despite herself.

'I know.' Lewis answered calmly, before putting the phone on mute. They could hear Sara muttering but couldn't make out words.

The two bomb experts looked at each other. The one who hadn't spoken, known by Tank because of his size finally shrugged. 'Let her decide.' He said.

'Decide what?' Catherine demanded.

Lewis didn't answer. He hit the mute button again. 'Sara, of the four wires, two are serial, two are parallel.' He said.

'Ok.'

'Cutting either of the pairs could disable the timing device and stop the bomb. However, the parallel circuit would override this, and the bomb would explode at midnight anyway when the alarm's power runs out. The serial, however, would break the whole circuit, and would render the bomb powerless.'

'Wouldn't the parallel circuit override this?'

'No, because only one circuit could be wired into the timing device. If you cut the serial, the whole circuit would collapse, and the parallel circuit would be broken anyway.'

'What are you saying?'

'That one of those pairs of wires is the parallel, one is the serial.'

'Which one's which?' Sara asked, watching the timing device clock down past three minutes.

'Usually the single marking is serial and the double is parallel, but bombers have been known to swap the markings to confuse.'

'So, I should cut the double green ones?'

'I don't know. I don't know anything about the bomber, how clever he is. Whatever wire you cut has to be cut now, and both of them have to be cut.'

'Why can't I cut both pairs of wires?'

'Because without anything, the complete break in the circuit would trigger the bomb. The only hope now is to stop the timing device, to break the circuit that way. Then, even with the power on, the bomb wouldn't have the circuitry to run.'

Sara stared at the four wires she held in her fingertips, unable to believe that two of the wires would disable the bomb, whilst the other two wouldn't make any difference. Her hands were shaking so much now, that she could barely hold the wires anyway. So that was what it came down to? Cutting a pair of wires? And she knew by the silence over the phone line that they were making the decision hers. Which seemed mighty unfair. She'd done their job up till now, had exposed the bomb, told them all they wanted to hear. Why couldn't they make this decision? She didn't want to be the one responsible for making the bomb go off, to make that final cut that would either disable or explode. Didn't want to die, but more, didn't want to be responsible for Lindsey's death.

She made two vows then. That she was never babysitting for anyone ever again, and that she was never setting her house alarm again. Burglary was way less hassle than this.

She thought of the strips of bomb, of the amount of C4 that would explode if she made the wrong decision. She just hoped it would be instant, for Lindsey's sake. That Lindsey wouldn't know anything about it, that she would sleep right through it, the "I love you" from her mother the last thing she remembered.

She thought of everyone listening in that van. Of her old mentor Grissom, the one who had fashioned such a love of forensics with his passionate lectures. Of Nicky, Warrick, even Greg. People she worked with, shared a huge part of her life with. Who helped wade through the horror of the everyday crimes to make life seem liveable again.

Of Catherine, who's little girl's fate now rested on her. On her ability to make this decision. To make the right decision.

'I'm sorry, Catherine. I'm so sorry.' She whispered down the line, one shaking finger finding the disconnect button, switching off the phone, plunging the house into absolute silence.

'No!' Catherine screamed at the phone, lunging for it, pulled off and away by Grissom.


	7. boom

Chapter Seven 

The cut was an anticlimax. Made with a simple flick of the wrist and a long hard prayer. She walked through the house with purposeful steps, walking to Lindsey's room. Lindsey cranked an eye open at the movement of her door, looking at Sara sleepily.

'Why aren't you sleeping?' Sara asked softly.

'Too dark.' Lindsey whispered.

'Oh.' Sara walked forward, sitting on the edge of the bed. When Lindsey scooted over, Sara moved so that she was sitting up against the headboard, long legs stretched out on the bed, Lindsey falling quickly asleep with her head pillowed on Sara's lap.

Sara closed her eyes, breathed out gently, refusing to acknowledge the count down going off in another room.

Lewis and Small were both examining the large digital clock, watching the seconds tick by. Nick was alternating between looking at the clock, and watching through the window, counting down the seconds anyway, like the digits were ingrained in his mind.

Grissom held a now still Catherine, her face, wet with tears, turned from the clock, not wanting to watch.

The fifty-fifty chance seemed too much of a gamble, was too big a stake to risk two lives on. But that was what it had come down to. Most gamblers would have loved the odds. But then again most gamblers weren't betting with their lives.

With the clock running past sixty seconds, Grissom's cell rang.

'We've got Cravely in custody. House turned up everything, but he won't cop to where the control is.' Warrick told him.

'Ok. It would have been pushing it anyway.' Grissom said, disconnecting.

For once, Warrick denied the chance to sit in on the interview with Brass; instead he and Greg started the long drive to Catherine's house, both silent as Warrick drove.

The silence was getting unbearable for Catherine. She risked a look at the clock, then wished she hadn't. Seventeen seconds and she'd know whether her girl was going to live or not. Seventeen seconds and she would either be hysterical with excitement or hysterical with despair. She didn't want to think about what it would be like, but found in the silence the images came anyway, unbidden. She suddenly had empathy for all those victims who said justice wasn't enough for what someone had done to ruin their lives. Because sitting there in the silence, waiting for the seconds to tick by, wanting them to slow to extend the time, but wanting them to hurry just so that she would know; life in a county jail suddenly seemed too little too late. Not enough punishment for causing this amount of pain.

The silence was wrapping round her like a blanket, shielding her from fruitless thoughts of what if? The silence was comforting, the soft whisper of breath from Lindsey calming her body, her mind until she stopped the relentless task of wondering, and just relaxed. There was nothing more she could do now. Failure or not, she had done all she could do. Everything from now on was outside of her control and it felt good to not have to worry about making anymore decisions. She'd done it. The decision was made. For better or worse. Now she could just relax, listen to Lindsey's unhurried breath. And just wait.

The first second no one moved. The second, Lewis and Small shared a glance. It wasn't till the third, pushing onto the forth that anyone moved. Catherine had felt Grissom move from where he held her hard against his chest. She slowly turned her head around, watching with uncomprehending eyes as the seconds ticked past six, then seven. After midnight. It wasn't until well after the fourteenth second that she found she could finally move, kicking herself into action, her chair scraping on the wooden floor of the van a sign for them all to start moving, to kick into action. Lewis got on the radio to his team. Small phoned through to HQ. Catherine jumped to her feet, ready to run flat out to her house.

Lewis caught her first, just as she stepped out of the van. 'Wait.' He told her firmly. 'Got to clear the house first.'

The agonising seconds until the squawk of the radio, a male voice telling them all clear was nothing like what she'd just had to sit through, but now, Catherine, restless and just wanting to be with her baby was desperate. As soon as Lewis released his hold, she was away, running the block, Grissom and Nicky along with most of the cops on her tail. The media seemed to have the same idea, about to race along with their TV cameras, catch all the emotion for live TV. Until they came up against a wall of cops who refused to let them go any further.

Sara heard the door being kicked down as if in a dream. She wasn't asleep, just waiting there in the silence. The surreal-ness of the whole thing continued as she heard a male voice yell all clear, and pandemonium broke out.

Sara only moved when she recognised Catherine's voice, getting out of the way so that Catherine could get to Lindsey, kissing and hugging the surprised youngster over and over.

Sara didn't see anyone, didn't acknowledge anyone, only one thought going through her head as on unsteady feet, she walked out of the room, walked down the corridor, towards the front door, needing more than anything just to escape the house.

Nick and Grissom watched her go, watching her unsteady progress, swaying, lurching as if she was drunk. They shared a glance and Nick followed her, Grissom staying behind in case Catherine needed him. Or any media tried to sneak in.

She didn't stop walking for almost half a block, suddenly coming to a halt by the road, all but collapsing onto the curb. Nick sat next to her, took one look at how white she was and pushed her head between her knees. She offered no resistance to the movement. Nick kept one hand on her neck, trying to be of comfort, feeling the tremors working their way through Sara, shock settling in.

The sound of a car broke the silence of the street, Nick looking up to see a Tahoe barrelling to a stop at the crime scene tape strung across the road, Warrick and Greg near enough falling out of the car, flashing badges at the cop on guard before walking a little more sedately up to them. Nick and Warrick shared glances as Warrick took a seat on the other side of Sara, Greg standing, shifting uneasily on his feet as he watched.

'Hey girl.' Warrick greeted her gently. 'How you doing?'

The only acknowledgement they got from Sara was a slight lifting of the head, so that it settled resting on her bended legs.

There was movement behind them, and Nick turned to see Catherine, Lindsey attached to her hip, coming towards them. He and Warrick subtly moved as Catherine crouched in front of Sara, not saying anything just hugging her as hard as she could.

Warrick was about to ask more when there was a shout to their left. 'Ms Sidle, Ms Willows, I'm Rose French from the Los Vegas Tribune. How does it feel to be out of the house? To know that…'

She carried on as Nick and Warrick both yelled no comment at the woman, some near by cops starting towards the cameras looking menacing. 

'Can we go?' Sara asked suddenly, looking up and at Nick. 

Catherine stood up, and Grissom pointed to the right. 'My car's that way. Anywhere you can stay for tonight?'

'My sister's.'

Lindsey just looked shocked, not understanding why her mom had suddenly turned up all sad, and why now they couldn't go back into the house. She just wanted to sleep. She had school in the morning, after all.

Nick helped Sara to her feet, and walked her quickly to the Tahoe, Warrick grabbing Greg on the way who looked like he wanted to go five rounds with Ms French. 

'We'll take her to CSI.' Warrick told Grissom, who nodded.

One strong whiskey laced coffee later and Sara had colour back in her cheeks, the shaking down to the occasional tremor of the hand. They were sat in the CSI break room, Greg having been pulled onto a seat by Warrick to stop him dancing around restlessly. Sara had refused a band-aid for the cut on her hand, although didn't stop Warrick as he cleaned up the dry blood from it.

Nick finally asked the question he had been dying to know since the bomb hadn't gone off. 'Which wires did you cut?'

'The one with the single line. In my experience, most criminals aren't that clever.' Sara answered with a simple shrug. It was hard to think that it all came down to that simple decision. The difference between sitting here, and…Sara stopped the thought. She didn't have to think like that. She'd made the cut, and it had worked. She couldn't live on what ifs.

The door opening then made them all jump. 'Catherine!' Sara exclaimed. Catherine stepped into the door followed by Grissom.

'I never thanked you.' Catherine said by way of explanation for her showing up. 'I never thanked you for looking after my little girl.' The little girl in question was holding her mom's hand, the other thumb in her mouth, looking extremely tired. On seeing Sara she let go of her mom's hand, stepped forward and climbed on Sara's lap. 'Make them all go away.' She muttered sleepily to Sara, before falling asleep leaning against Sara.

Sara watched her sleep for a few moments before looking up at Catherine a smile on her face. 'Does this mean you won't have your Grouchy face on for a while?'

Catherine shot a look at her peacefully sleeping daughter before smiling. 'You bet.'

Thank you for every review- you've all been great with your words. Hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.


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